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Knitting. Yarn hoarding. Being a Mom. Jazz. Music. Bugs Bunny. Cooking and eating. And other stuff.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Moving right along...

Thanks to my blog readers who encouraged me to focus on one project at a time (and cover the others with a blanket!). I decided to stick with socks for now. I started a pair of toe up socks for DH, whose birthday is Feb. 14! I figure that if I can get through the heel successfully, I can finish the socks and also finish DS's socks for his birthday on Feb. 28! Don't know if that's too ambitious but I'm not taking on any more projects until I can deal with at least 1 pair of socks.

I hosted my "other knitting group" lastnight at my house -- those who could come. Four of us have been knitting together since 1990-ish. I can't believe how long it's been! I have to admit that the "other knitting group" is much more focused on talking and we do about 15 minutes of gratuitous knitting at the end of the evening!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

One step forward and three steps back...

I am going through a trial ridden period of knitting ADD. This is when I start one project, run into problems, have to frog and reknit, discover another problem, frog and reknit a few times and get frustrated. In my frustration, I get distracted and decide to jump over to another project. This leaves me, ultimately, with about 5 simultaneous projects, none of which are getting anywhere because I've run into problems on all of them! And then I just totally lose focus. So what do I do? I get distracted by the thought of a new project and its possibilities, and then I buy more yarn! This is why my house is full of yarn and WIPs.

This is not unique to my knitting -- my house is messy and full of started projects that aren't finished. But it seems to be best represented in the way that I approach knitting projects. I wish I could be more focused about lots of things in my life and knitting is one of them. I'm think of doing the knitting olympics just so I can make myself focus on one thing! I also get way too ambitious and think I can accomplish lots of projects that aren't realistic.

Combine that with increasing my work hours and the fact that my little one D. who is 3 years old, likes to stay up late, go to bed and get up about 4 times during the evening, and I can't get much done. Aaargh. Any advice from my few readers is appreciated.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Multidirectional scarf and classic mittens

I started this multidirectional scarf in Diakeito Diamusee as a way to practice short rows. I have trouble with short rows in the socks I have begun so thought this might be good practice and I love the way the many colors of the yarn shows up diagonally in the scarf pattern. So, it's been going really well! Here's a close up:

I'm loving it and it will be a 25th birthday gift for my niece. Now, instead of something new, here's something old:

This is a pair of mittens bought somewhere in the midwest (probably Wisconsin or Minnesota) on a road trip in 1990, probably at some craft fair. I recall that DH and I stopped in La Crosse to go to the Company Store factory outlet and may have gone other places in La Crosse. The tag says "Estonian Mittens by Chris' mother $19.98". DH found them in a box in our basement. Aren't they amazing? I aspire to such knitting. DH gave me Latvian Mittens by Elizabeth Upitis. I hope to knit something like these in the future.

In the meantime, the multidirectional scarf will do. Happy New Year to all!